Happy birthday, hubby!

Saturday was my husband, Sals birthday, so the whole weekend was his. Whatever he wanted to do…it was his call. Some of the weekend is already planned for him because it’s tax season so he had clients all day Friday and most of Saturday. We fired up the grill to cook steaks and had one delicious dinner. His dessert for the weekend was a sugarfree Blueberry Cheesecake. It’s a recipe I got from my mother-in-law who got it from a friend of hers, so it’s been passed around a little…..but man is it goooooood! It's rather guilt-free because of the loads of sugar you cut out. It does use Splenda, so if you have issues with it, you'll need to make some substitutions. Here’s the recipe if you wanna try it. You can substitute any fruit and preserves you want to. Sal liked the blueberry, but I kinda like the strawberry version better. You try ‘em and see which you like!

SUGAR FREE CHEESECAKE

2 cups finely crushed sugar-free butter or shortbread cookies (I use Murray’s)
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 cup blueberries
3 8oz pkgs of 1/3 less fat cream cheese-softened
1 cup Splenda
1 ½ tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 10oz jar sugar free blueberry preserves (I use Smuckers)
¼ cup plus 3 Tbls of juice from can of Lite Peach Halves (save peaches for something else)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine crushed butter or shortbread cookies and melted butter. Press mixture evenly into bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9” springform pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.

Filling: Drain peach halves reserving ¼ cup and 3 Tbls of Lite syrup. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, Splenda, 3 Tbls of reserved peach syrup and vanilla with electric mixer until combined. Add eggs all at once, beating on low speed just until combined. Stir in blueberries. Pour filling into crust-lined pan. Place on shallow baking pan in oven. Bake for 50 minutes or until center appears nearly set when cheesecake is gently shaken. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen crust from sides of pan and cool cheesecake 30 minutes more. Remove the sides of the pan and cool completely.

Glaze: In small saucepan, melt blueberry preserves over low heat. (about ¾ of a 12oz jar) Remove from heat; stir in the ¼ cup Lite juice from the peach halves. Spread over cheesecake. Cover and chill at least 4 hours before serving. Makes 16 servings.